


All The Good Parts

by artisturtle



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Soft Supercorp, SuperCorp Sunday, This is Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:01:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29422719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artisturtle/pseuds/artisturtle
Summary: Kara misses her subway stop and meets Lena.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 26
Kudos: 260





	All The Good Parts

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, an idea came to me today. This is actually just a short one-shot I sorta made. Oh, and disclaimer, I haven't checked/fully beta-ed this one so apologies for mistakes. Enjoy!
> 
> ADDENDUM: Also, forgot to tag this as an AU, I was so sleepy earlier. Hope that didn't ruin you all the fun.

There’s a certain feeling that one only gets when they’re waking up; when the consciousness is still trapped between sleep and wakefulness. Kara straightens herself up, sleepily rubbing her eyes as she tries to adjust them to the harsh, bright lights inside the subway.

She plants her foot forward as the train slows down to a stop. Lurching slightly, she grips the metal rail so she could stand. She slowly ambles towards the open door of the train. She sighs, her first day at CatCo had been a total bomb, but now she’s exhausted, and all she could think about is a long, relaxing bath and much-needed sleep.

She could tell it’s raining outside by the wet, drenched looks of the people about to get on the train. She fumbles inside her bag, her hands seeking the familiar shape of the foldable umbrella she had kept at the bottom of her large handbag. She sighs rather loudly when she remembers that in her haste to leave CatCo earlier that day, she had forgotten to take her umbrella and her phone.

She looks around at her surroundings. Something is wrong -- terribly wrong.

When Alex had given her a tour of the city the previous weekend, she had memorized the route from her apartment to CatCo and to all the important places like hospitals, police stations, post office, and the like. She’s not one who forgets details easily and she’s pretty sure her stop station has a donut stand right next to the escalators that led up.

Now, there’s no donut stand. In fact, there is nothing but a bare, concrete wall.

Swallowing hard, she reads the signboard above her again. She’s pretty sure she had read it right the first time as she stepped out of the train.

“This...this isn’t my stop,” she mutters to herself as dread seeps into her. “Oh no, this is not my stop.”

As a reflex, Kara fumbles for her bag, hoping to find her phone and call Alex, but she realizes she has forgotten it back at CatCo.

 **_Great. Her first day at work and her first Monday in National City and she’s messing things up_ ** _._

She debates whether to stay and wait for the next train to come, but she doesn’t have any idea what part of the city she’s in. She decides then, that maybe the best thing to do is to hail a cab and just take the long way home. Hesitantly, she had decided to go and went up the stairs.

She cringes slightly at the smell of pollution and mud as it assaults her nose by the time she has gotten off the subway station. She spies the quaint awning of a small bakeshop on the other side of the street, and she’s hoping she could take shelter while she hails a cab. Slinging her leather bag above her head, she half-runs through the pouring rain.

The awning is full of people who seem to be thinking of the same thing as she’s thinking of. Pretty soon, the whole thing became a push-and-shove competition, everyone hoping to get to the cabs first. Kara’s just too tired to even join in the whole I-hailed-the-cab-first mojo and she didn’t want to get into a fight over a cab on top of all things today, so she decides not to push her luck any longer, and she tries to see if there’s a place she can hang out while the rain pours outside.

She’s lucky that the back of the bakery is actually a coffee shop. It’s quaint and small, with just a few chairs and too many people in it. She rushes to find a vacant seat at the back of the room, just close to the service exit.

She consoles herself that she’s lucky it’s not the bathroom or the pantry that she’s close to. She can’t be picky, considering that the empty seats in the room are hard to come by. She orders a cup of coffee (the first one on their menu) since she doesn’t really care much for coffee right now, all she ever needed right at the moment is a place to keep dry.

It’s been a good five minutes into her cup when a woman breezes into the room, soaked to the skin with rain. She’s wearing a dark-gray pantsuit, making her pale complexion stand out. Her dark, jet-black hair desperately clings to her face, her thin lips still bearing waterproof red lipstick. Her jaw is set tensely, and she’s shivering slightly.

But what had caught Kara’s attention had been her eyes.

She’s not a stranger to heterochromia. She had a cat when she was in high school and it had a blue eye on the right and a yellow eye on the left. And while others have been taken aback at the strange eyes that her cat had possessed, she had thought that the cat’s eyes had been very beautiful, almost mesmerizing, almost otherworldly.

Just like the woman’s eyes.

It’s unnerving how beautiful and mesmerizing they look. Kara could find a few words to describe it: hypnotic, mesmerizing, ethereal -- otherworldly.

But there’s something off as well, something Kara couldn’t place -- a haunting look that she couldn’t put quite a name to -- something that makes her wonder.

She’s still listing off all other synonyms of the words she could think of by the time the woman had come near her and perhaps had spoken to her the first time because the woman is already calling for her attention by the time she’s back on her body.

“Excuse me, can you watch my bag for a sec while I get my order?” the girl says as she puts a drenched, black leather handbag on the table opposite Kara’s seat. The woman’s voice is a rich baritone, thick and heavy with the Irish twang that Kara had rather uncommon, but utterly interesting.

Kara could only nod. She had almost forgotten why she’s there in the first place. When the woman had left, she ended up staring off into the space the woman had just left. A burly man grabs the chair just in front of Kara, and the sound of the chair legs scraping against the hardwood floor is enough to make Kara’s brain go in gear.

“Hey, that seat’s taken!” she says. “My friend...she’s just getting her order.”

The man just gruffly issues out a hurried apology and he tries to squeeze himself into a chair on the opposite side of the room. Kara’s not sure why she said such, why she had claimed the strange woman to be her friend, but she realized that all the chairs have been seated, and she’s fairly positive that the woman would be glad she had saved her a seat in the otherwise crowded room.

Then, her mind starts overthinking and maybe the woman wouldn’t want to sit with her and that’ll be so awkward. Before she could even decide what to do now, she spies the woman making her way back towards her. Then, she realizes that maybe she could get some help. She could borrow the woman’s phone and call her sister.

She kind of breathes easily when she sees a timid smile playing on the woman’s lips when she’s closer to where she’s sitting. “You saved me a seat,” she breathed out once she’s within hearing distance. “I really did not want to impose, but thanks anyway.”

She shrugs. “Every other seat’s been taken,” she tells her. “I thought I could save one for you, since this rain doesn’t have plans to stop anytime soon and you look like you need a seat so you can enjoy your cup of coffee in peace.”

Kara tries not to be as wordy as she usually is and mentally scolds herself to stop the word vomit because it’s really awkward but she couldn’t help herself. The woman is looking at her with an amused glint in her eye, though -- and despite her smile not quite reaching her eyes, it’s a smile nonetheless.

“You’re sweet,” the woman says. “My name is Lena,” she tells Kara, her voice deep and soft. It carries a weight that Kara finds heavy, and yet she welcomes the sound of her voice like the winter earth welcomes the spring.

“I’m Kara,” she introduces herself, and she does a little congratulation in her head when she does because she manages not to be awkward. Then she remembers again why she had wanted to talk to the woman in the first place.

She nervously wrings her hands, unsure of how to say it. Apparently, Lena seemed to have taken notice, and she raises a questioning brow at Kara.

“Are you alright?” Lena asks.

She’s not sure how this thing works, but Kara desperately needs to phone home, so she swallows all the pride and the shyness she has ever possessed and musters herself to procure a thicker skin, even for just five minutes.

“I need to borrow your phone,” she says in a quiet voice.

Lena leans forward on the table, her face merely a foot away from Kara. “Can you say that again?”

Kara sighs. “Can I borrow your phone? This might sound really absurd, but I’m actually lost and I need to phone home.”

Lena looks astonished, as if to ask how the hell a person in their twenties could have no phone in this day and age and how an adult basically has lost herself in National City. “You’re lost?” she asks incredulously, as if that is something too trivial.

Kara shrugs. “Well, technically, I wasn’t lost. I just didn’t know where my stop was, and maybe I have missed it and just didn’t notice. All I know is that I got off on the wrong stop. I was so exhausted at work today, and I don’t know, I must have missed it.”

Lena just stares at her, unsure whether she’d take Kara’s story or not.

“Look, I just need to phone my sister home so she can pick me up or tell me where to go,” Kara says. “I promise, I’ll be quick. I just need to call my sister.”

The woman laughs, almost ruefully. “You’re not from here?”

Kara’s pretty sure somewhere her Mom would kill her for talking to strangers, but the woman doesn’t look creepy as hell anyway (in fact, she does look like the complete opposite of creepy) so she tells her that she’s not from National City.

“I live in Hammersmith Tower,” she tells Lena. “I know the neighborhood, but it’s just that I haven’t been in these parts of the city and I don’t know how to make my way back. That’s why I need to call my sister so she can pick me up.”

Lena nods, as if understanding the entire situation. The brunette had slid her phone on the table. “Here,” she tells Kara. “Call your sister. I’ll hang out with you until she comes by to pick you up.”

“She’ll be here in fifteen minutes or so,” Kara says as she slides the phone back to Lena. “She’s still at work, and I need to wait for her to finish her shift so she can pick me up,” she says softly. It’s embarrassing enough that she had lost herself in National City. The fact that her sister had told her to stay put so she can be picked up is just adding insult to the injury.

“You managed to lose your own way around here,” Lena says in an astounded tone as she pockets the phone.

Kara scowls. In the back of her mind, she thinks Lena had said it sarcastically, but her wide, bright eyes are looking at her with interest that Kara double-guesses whether Lena had actually wanted to rile her up or she really meant it.

“I’m not from here,” Kara says defensively, schooling her scowl into a neutral face.

“I’m from here,” Lena says. “National City, I mean. Where are you from?”

Kara starts to relax. Lena seems to be a genuine person all in all. “Midvale,” she says to Lena. She takes a look at the window, watching the rain as it falls down from the skies. “God, this rain’s not letting up.”

“Well, this city sure does know how to rain,” Lena’s lips curve into a small smile. She leans back on her chair, sipping on her coffee as she watches the rain fall on the pavement outside. “When I was younger, I thought it was pretty, how the skies could release something so mysterious such as rain. I always ask myself: what do you think it looks like up there?”

Kara turns to Lena, not really sure of how to answer her.

She’s still grappling at what Lena had said when Alex bursts in through the door. Lena stands, and Kara is surprised that they’re almost the same height. Minutes ago, Lena had looked shorter, more vulnerable. Now she has carried herself with certainty and there’s a surety in her actions that tells Kara there’s more to this woman that she actually led on.

“Hey sis!” Alex greets her with a shit-eating look in her eyes, and it’s enough to tell Kara that this is one incident that Alex would never let her live down. “How the hell did you manage to miss your stop? What are you, twelve?”

Kara’s cheeks burn with embarrassment, and she looks at her feet, willing the ground to swallow her up. She tries to sneak a look at Lena, who has modestly tried to keep her eyes on the phone she had just pulled out of her pocket.

“I just missed it, okay?” she says with an annoyed huff. “Just come on, take me home.”

Alex just cackles at her expense, and Kara feels the burning sting again on her cheeks. She could feel Lena’s watching her, and she turns around to tell Lena a quick thank-you before heading out of the door with Alex taking great strides ahead of her.

It’s a few days later when she runs into Lena **_on the subway_ **.

Lena’s wearing that business-y suit again, but today her hair has been pulled up into a tight, high ponytail. She’s sitting on the far corner of the subway compartment, reading from her phone. She’s not entirely sure if it’s just coincidence, but Lena looks up from her phone and a smile lights up her face.

“Kara, right?” she says richly. This time, the smile is full-on. Lena pats the space next to her so Kara could sit.

“Oh God,” Kara bemoans. “You’re not going to let me live that down as well?”

Lena laughs. “I bet your sister still teases you in her sleep.”

“Please, Alex is so much worse. She’s been talking about it for days. I’ll just let her tease me until it loses its effect,” she says as she covers her face in embarrassment. “God, this is so embarrassing. You didn’t have to remember me by **that** ,” she says as she rolls her eyes.

The brunette shoves her hands into the pockets of her suit. “Come on, I don’t think it’s **that bad.** ”

Kara rolls her eyes again. “Oh yeah? I think it is very bad.”

“You know, for the record. I think you’re still pretty cool,” Lena shrugs. “And pretty much a swell person, you know? If I was in another city and had lost myself, I’d probably freak out.”

“I was freaking out!”

Lena grins. “I don’t know about you, but you seemed pretty cool about it. I think you not freaking out is cool enough, you see.”

Kara argues that she’s not staying ‘pretty cool’ about it. They end up arguing a bit before Lena asks her how her work was. In turn, tells her that she works in the corporate business, working for a tech company on the other side of town.

They’re talking for a while when Kara **_almost misses_ ** her stop again. Luckily, Lena’s able to tell the difference between stops and Kara has managed to get off her own stop this time.

The third time it happens, Lena’s in such a foul mood.

Kara steps into the subway, her eyes scanning the crowd of late-night subway riders, looking for a familiar face. It’s just been two days since they had last run into each other, and she finds Lena sitting on the far side of the compartment again. The brunette is talking heatedly with someone on the phone.

Kara couldn’t make out the conversation and she’s not one to eavesdrop either. She tries to skirt far from Lena, choosing to sit on the other side of the subway car and squeezing herself to one end of the bench. It’s a good few minutes before Lena finally ends the phone call and shoves the phone back into her pockets.

She only notices Kara then, and her brows furrow. “Why are you sitting there?” she asks, her eyes now calm and composed.

Kara could see through the mask Lena is wearing. She knows Lena must be feeling terrible, and to be frank, she kind of wants to sit next to Lena as well. So, she abandons her spot at the bench and sits next to Lena.

“Rough day?” she asks.

Lena nods. “You could say that,” she tells Kara.

Kara gives her a reassuring smile. “I’m here.”

“My brother’s been chewing my head off for the most part of the day,” Lena says sulkily. “I don’t need him biting my head off every damn time. And besides, we’ve been having high demands. So much that our suppliers couldn’t provide for them on time.”

Lena tells her about the problem they’re running into the warehouses, how the raw materials and the tech parts are getting delayed by regulations in the Atlantic. Kara, for most of her part, doesn’t really understand the operations much, but she tries to understand Lena’s situation.

She doesn’t really know how Lena’s job runs, and she’s not sure she really understands the entirety of the situation, so she holds her tongue and instead just holds Lena’s arm awkwardly, but Lena just leans into her touch and it’s something that makes Kara’s chest feel warm.

The fourth time they meet each other on the subway, it’s Kara who is in a foul mood.

Cat had been quite unimpressed by the article she had turned it that morning, and Winn had been an annoying little runt lately. Today, those two are at it again, and it’s enough to push Kara’s buttons in all of the wrong places.

The moment she steps into the subway car, all she could think of is sleep. She barely even notices Lena waving at her. The brunette had taken her arm and guided her to the empty space next to her and they sat for some time together.

“Rough day?” it’s Lena who asks.

Kara smiles through her tired eyes. “You could say that.”

It’s Lena who gives her a reassuring smile and rubs her shoulders reassuringly. “I’m here.”

The fifth time they see each other, it’s morning.

The weather had been terribly cold that day. When Kara steps into the subway, her eyes immediately zero in on Lena, whose cheeks are flushed red from the cold outside. And it must be coincidental as well, but Lena had held out a cup of coffee for her the moment she had seated on the space next to Lena.

“Would’ve been for my assistant,” Lena shrugs simply as she takes a sip of her own. “But I guess, she could get coffee on her own.”

“The horrors should this coffee cup spill,” Kara stares into the cup. It’s not exactly her favorite coffee order, but it’s something she could stomach nonetheless. “Thank you, Lena. I really appreciate it.”

“How come this is the first time we see each other in the morning?” Lena asks thoughtfully. “I mean we’ve always seen each other at night.”

Kara smiles into her cup. She adjusts her eyeglasses. “Sometimes, I’m tempted to think of you as a vampire. You know, only out during night time. Preying on young, clueless girls who are lost in the city,” she says. The last bit is indeliberate, and for a moment Kara wishes she could take it back.

“A vampire, huh?” Lena says. If she had noticed the slip-up, she doesn’t mention it. “Your imagination runs wild, Kara.”

They don’t talk much after that. The subway starts filling up with people going to work, so it’s a bit awkward to talk too much in a very cramped space full of people. Instead, Kara and Lena just sip on their coffee cups in silence, taking stock of people coming and going.

Soon, it’s Kara’s stop. The subway leads up to Twelfth, which is just basically behind CatCo.

“This is me,” Kara says as she stands. Lena stands and moves to give her a hug. “Thanks for the coffee again, Lena. Take care.”

Lena whispers for her to take care and have a good day as well, and maybe it’s a bit of a stupid cliche, but she waves her hand at Lena’s face as the subway leaves. Kara doesn’t leave the platform not until the subway disappears from her view.

The seventh time it happens, it’s late at night.

Kara had a few drinks with some of her friends and co-workers from CatCo, and she’s stumbling into the subway at that time of the night because she’s a bit tipsy. She still hasn’t lost her inhibitions, though. Winn had made at least four advances on her tonight and she had managed to evade them, albeit some of them unceremoniously.

Lena’s eyes are closed as she is leaning on the wall of the subway car when she sits on the far end of the bench. It had come almost natural to Kara now, to seek for Lena at the corners of the subway car whenever it’s night time. Lena squints one eye open, and a small, lopsided smile escapes her lips.

“Thought I’ll be the only one left to go home late,” Lena whispers at her. She straightens her posture and she rubs the heel of her palms on her eyes, trying to rub away the sleep from her eyes. “Looks like the golden girl had a lot of fun.”

Kara snorts. “You look torpedoed.”

“Not all of us are privileged to party,” Lena mocks. “Some of us have to work long hours.”

“Boo,” Kara teases. “Sucks to be you.”

Lena fake-scowls at her. “Sucks to be **you** ,” she returns and she holds her palm up Kara’s face. “How many fingers am I holding?”

The blonde girl, for the most part, swats Lena’s hand away. “I’m not drunk!” she hysterically says, laughter bubbling from her throat. “What are you doing? You look ridiculous!” she bemoans, and Lena joins in on the laughter.

An old woman from the other side of the bench shushes them, and it’s enough to make them quiet. Lena grins at Kara, who’s trying (and failing) to contain her laughter so hard, that her cheeks are puffy-red.

“Kara, we gotta stop seeing each othe--”

“--stop seeing each other like this,” Kara says at the same time, and it sends them again into another fit of giggles. The old woman glares at them and shushes them for the second time.

The eighth time it happens, they’re thankfully out of that god-awful subway. They actually planned for it. Lena had brought Kara (via subway) to one of National City’s parks. The day had been balmy and warm, perfect for a Saturday afternoon getaway.

“So basically this is where you grew up in,” Kara motions to their general surroundings.

“Well, yeah. But I kinda grew in a boarding school, so I only had summers and winter breaks to do that here,” Lena says, picking at the grass next to her. “I was probably here just a couple of times, but when Lex and I were younger, we’d spend days here. He knows this place like the back of his hand.”

Kara had a general idea of who Lex is, and she smiles fondly at Lena. "He's quite the brother, huh?"

"He's a terrible cook," Lena shrugs and grins at her own joke.

"Don't let him hear you that," Kara says, and Lena breaks into a fit of laughter.

It's sort of weird having to see Lena in daylight. Kara takes note of the way her light complexion looks when sunlight dances on her skin. She takes note of the way her eyes shine when the light hits it.

When Lena is laughing like this, Lena is ethereal.

"You're looking at me funny," Lena quips at her. "What are you thinking about?"

"Huh?" Kara pretends to look innocent. "What do you mean?"

"You're looking at me funny," Lena faux-accuses. "And you got your thinking face on. You can't lie to me, Kara."

The blonde just rolls her eyes at Lena -- _her friend_ , whom by now, she knows she's terribly crushing on.

"Nothing," she finally relents. "I was just thinking you look so different in daylight."

Lena's smile grows impossibly wider. "At least now you've confirmed I am not a vampire."

Kara lightly punches her arm. "Sucker."

Lena gets the pun and cackles again. "Jesus, you're so bad at this, Kara!"

They're lying on ground underneath a large oak tree, watching the clouds above them. The soft grass is tickling their skin, and the warm breeze is making Kara's eyelids feel heavy.

"Tell me something I don't know," she says to Lena, who's lying next to her on the grass.

"What do you want me to tell?"

Kara sighs, pulling herself closer to Lena. "Anything," she whispers.

Lena is quiet for a while. Kara thinks that Lena had fallen asleep, it had been so warm and the afternoon had been so quiet. She turns her head on her side towards Lena, just to check if the brunette is really asleep.

Lena has her eyes closed.

"I am awake," Lena says. "Don't try to do anything."

"I'm not...trying to do anything," Kara says playfully. "I just thought you've fallen asleep or something."

"No, I was thinking," Lena says, her voice catching on her throat a little. She shifts so she could face Kara.

"Of what?" Kara fully turns her body towards Lena, so that they could face each other as they lay on the grass.

"Of how to tell you something you don't know," Lena says simply, her eyes refusing to meet Kara's. "There's so much you know about me already, Kara. And yet there are things I've never told you about yet. And I don't know how to tell you."

Kara's brows furrow. "Tell me about what?"

Lena swallows hard. Kara watches Lena's eyes as the brunette stares at her in the eye.

"That I didn't need to ride the subway each night."

"What do you mean, Lena? What do you mean you didn't need to--"

Lena watches Kara, and suddenly, Kara recognizes that very same look Lena is sporting -- the very same look Lena had been when they first met at the coffee shop many weeks ago.

Lena is being open, honest -- vulnerable.

"You...you didn't need to ride the subway?" Kara swallows. She's fumbling like a fish out if water. "But...but why do you--"

"I...I wanted to see you," Lena finally admits. "I didn't know how to...to see you without being such a klutz so I thought maybe if I ride the same subway as you ride on...I'd be able to get to see you."

"Oh," Kara could almost hear the breeze rush into her lungs as she watches Lena, suddenly abashed and shy, as if unsure of what to do with herself. "But that night in the shop..."

"I was never on the subway that night. I was trying to get a breather and I saw you," Lena says. "I saw you by chance and I knew I had to talk to you. And when I talked to you, I couldn't take just one night. I had to see you again."

Kara runs a hand on Lena's jaw, lifting the woman's face so she could lift her eyes towards hers. Slowly, painfully, she leans forward. She could smell Lena's perfume -- it smells of summer and ocean and rain. Slowly, Kara breathes her in, committing each sensory information to her memory. She traces the side of Lena's face, and her heart sings when Lena leans into her touch.

"You're such an idiot," she finally whispers when she's just a breath away from Lena's face. She leans her forehead on Lena's. "You took so long."

Lena's bright eyes search her own. "Sorry it took me so long to grow balls."

Kara scrunches her nose at Lena. "Don't say balls," she pipes. "C'mere," she softly pulls Lena impossibly closer and she plants a soft kiss on Lena's lips.

Summer floods into her tongue.

**(#)**

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaand thank you for taking the time to read! I hope you enjoyed. Give it a kudos and a comment if you want. I'd love that.


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